Honduran cardinal presents complex figure

FILE - In this April 12, 2005 file photo Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras waits to enter the grottos containing the tomb of Pope John Paul II after a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. To many, Honduran Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga embodies the activist wing of the Roman Catholic Church as an outspoken campaigner of human rights, a watchdog on climate change and advocate of international debt relief for poor nations.Others, however, see him as a reactionary
— AP

FILE - In this April 12, 2005 file photo Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras waits to enter the grottos containing the tomb of Pope John Paul II after a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. To many, Honduran Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga embodies the activist wing of the Roman Catholic Church as an outspoken campaigner of human rights, a watchdog on climate change and advocate of international debt relief for poor nations.Others, however, see him as a reactionary
/ AP

FILE - A Sunday Feb. 24, 2013 photo from files showing Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, the 70-year-old archbishop of Tegucigalpa, giving mass at the metropolitan cathedral in the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. To many, Honduran Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga embodies the activist wing of the Roman Catholic Church as an outspoken campaigner of human rights, a watchdog on climate change and advocate of international debt relief for poor nations. Others, however, see him as a react— AP

FILE - A Sunday Feb. 24, 2013 photo from files showing Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, the 70-year-old archbishop of Tegucigalpa, giving mass at the metropolitan cathedral in the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. To many, Honduran Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga embodies the activist wing of the Roman Catholic Church as an outspoken campaigner of human rights, a watchdog on climate change and advocate of international debt relief for poor nations. Others, however, see him as a react
/ AP

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras 
To many, Honduran Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga embodies the activist wing of the Roman Catholic Church as an outspoken campaigner of human rights, a watchdog on climate change and advocate of international debt relief for poor nations.

Others, however, see him as a reactionary in the other direction: Described as sympathetic to a coup in his homeland and stirring accusations of anti-Semitism for remarks that some believe suggested Jewish interests encouraged extra media attention on church sex abuse scandals.

Both images will follow him into the Sistine Chapel conclave along with other cardinals named as possible successors to Pope Benedict XVI.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as `'papabili" - contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Rodriguez Maradiaga.

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Maradiaga, the archbishop of Tegucigalpa, is among a handful of Latin American prelates considered to have a credible shot at the papacy if fellow cardinals turn, for the first time, to a region with about 40 percent of the world's Catholics and a growing roster of dynamic church leaders.

"Of course, the day will come for a pope from the south, as it came for one from the east," Maradiaga was quoted as saying in a 2008 interview with the Milan-based newspaper Il Giornale in reference to Polish-born Pope John Paul II. "At no time have I thought of myself as papabile," the Italian word for papal candidates.

Perhaps more than the other Latin American papal contenders, however, the 70-year-old Maradiaga carries a complicated and, at times, contradictory resume. That could worry some papal electors looking to tone down controversies after wrenching abuse cases around the world and turmoil inside the Vatican walls over embarrassing leaked documents on finances and internal power plays.

Maradiaga, who was named as cardinal in 2001, was mentioned among the possible papal successors in 2005 following the death of John Paul II. A lot has happened since to both raise his profile and possibly dim his papal chances.

In 2007, Maradiaga was elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church's largest aid network. At Caritas, however, he felt the sting of the Vatican after accusations of working in tandem with relief agencies that may veer from Catholic teachings such as bans on birth control. The Vatican later issued a document outlining how all church-affiliated charity groups must not mix with others that could contradict Catholic tenets.

Still, the Caritas post further enhanced his credentials as a powerful Catholic voice for aid and economic justice, including years as the Vatican's spokesman with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on the issue of developing world debt.

At a speech in 2006 in Cincinnati, he urged the United States to more to ease illegal immigration by fostering economic development "instead of trying to build walls or putting the National Guard on the border."